I bought an Open & Play Big Cannon on eBay for $35.99 with an 11.11 sale because I wanted a Galvatron for my collection, but none of the available offerings looked exactly as I wanted. There's no way I was disassembling a Sovereign, so this seemed a decent compromise. Here's a rundown of changes: Disassembled and repainted all the dark warm purple a lighter purple that looked a bit closer to the movie colors to my eye. Painted all the really crappy silver/grey bits with silver Painted the inside of the cannon silver to give it more of a premium look Painted the eyes with Molotow Liquid Chrome, then Tamiya Clear Red, followed by a gloss clear coat for an auto-paint kind of reflection effect Added dark gunmetal accents to the shoulder pylons, feet, and cannon Some light panel lining on the thighs and lower legs to bring out the details a touch more Drilled a new port for the cannon in the right forearm Sculpted and cast new wrist adapters to allow KFC MP-11 hands to be used with it (yes, he transforms perfectly fine with the new hands, I was just very pressed for time when shooting last night so didn't transform him) It's only my second custom, so I'm outrageously happy with how he turned out, especially with molding custom parts for him. Thanks for looking! Edit: Brief tutorial for the wrist connectors added below, per request. To complete this, you'll need an Open & Play Big Cannon, A set of MP-11 hands from KFC (I chose black and painted the purple over them), tape, a molding compound like Oyumaru, two-part epoxy, and a bit of patience. 1. Since the existing wrist connections have a cutout for the peg on the included hands, you'll need to fill that in first. I taped the sides up with electrical tape and filled it from the wrist connection point with wood glue. You can use Milliput, epoxy, whatever you have on hand. I'd recommend either of those as the wood glue contracts as it dries and more layers need to be added to keep it flat...It just needs to create a flat surface that we can use to temporarily attach the mushroom peg from the MP-11 hands for casting. Allow to cure properly. 2. Next, carefully cut off the mushroom peg from one of the KFC MP-11 hand wrist pieces with a very sharp, fresh hobby knife blade. Cut as close to the base of the peg as possible since you don't want to lose any material on the peg. If it's too short, the wrists won't work properly and all this work will be for nothing. Also be sure to cut very, very straight. I also recommend either using a small clamp/clip to hold the end of the mushroom peg or cutting inside a large plastic bag to keep the mushroom peg from flying off when you cut through it. 3. Inspect the freshly cut peg and make sure the base of it is straight and clean. If it is a tad uneven, gently sand it just to the point of being straight. Again, the goal is to avoid losing too much material from the base. Then attach to the center of the surface you filled in Step 1. 4. Use a mold making to make a mold of the part (there are plenty of other tutorials available on this process). Press your part halfway into the mold, making sure the Oyumaru is filling into the notches for the forearm panel and around the mushroom peg, as sometimes the material can pull down and away when the piece is pressed in. Note: I experimented with making a two-part mold of these, but found the precise alignment of the hole where it slides over the forearm assembly in relation to the notches int he sides where the hatch on the forearm pegs in made it too finicky. The problem is that the mushroom peg ends up getting air bubbles when done horizontally, and the Oyumaru mold stretched from the heat of the epoxy setting if you mold it vertically. It absolutely CAN be done as a two-part mold, but it is far quicker and easier to do one-parts and glue them together after the fact. 4. After the molding compound has properly set, repeat three more times. The parts are small, and you can easily make these out of a single Oyumaru stick so having four to fill will save you a lot of time in the long run. 5. Mix up some epoxy (you can either use the syringe type from a hardware store or spring for large bottles if you intend to make a habit of this, the choice is yours). Pour into the mold slowly and carefully to avoid air bubbles. I like to overfill slightly and scrape the excess off the top with an old credit card, ensuring a fairly flat and even top. 6. Allow the epoxy to cure. Consult individual instructions for timing, but I advise overnight just in case, especially if the weather is cold. I found last month that even in Arizona the temperature was cold enough to cause several of my attempts to fail with improperly cured epoxy. Placing a space heater on the desk where they were curing helped a great deal. 7. Pop your four pieces out of the mold. Fit them together and compare with the thickness of the original wrist connector. You may need to gently sand down or even out the inside surfaces. Glue them together when satisfied (I used superglue, as I've found it holds clear epoxy together very well in the past). Once the glue is dry, you may need to carefully drill through the center. In my case, the center peg of the mold didn't quite reach up to the top of the poured epoxy, necessitating a very tiny bit of drilling to get through the center of both pieces after gluing. 8. Paint however you choose and you're ready to go! The MP-11 hands still fold up to fit inside the forearms for transformation, although you may need to fiddle with them a bit to find the right orientation for the fingers.
There's a good looking figure under there. Less like putting lipstick on a pig and more like putting a tuxedo on a hobo, lol. Good looking guy under there, just needed a shower and a shave...
good stuff.. my cannon is on my get to list.. may also try that mp 11 hand mod.. he looks way better with those hand. got a demo on that mod?
I didn't think to chronicle the process at the time...but I can remedy that. I'll post an update this weekend
Sorry for the delay, life got in the way. Forgive the pics, Facebook decided to upload them rotated in weird ways...but you'll get the idea.
Certainly. They were linking to FB before, which may have been part of the issue. I uploaded them directly this time. Thanks for looking!
I have considered getting Big Cannon occasionally because I actually think he looks really good. I like his cannon mode better than the Fanstoys Sovereign I have and he is undoubtedly much more fun to transform than that one too. What you did just pushed him over the top to being something I would replace my fanstoys version with in a heartbeat. Looks great!
Thanks guys, I really appreciate the positive feedback. I agree that I also like the cannon mode better, but in bot mode I still don't think he's quite Sovereign level. I would, however, pit this guy against DX9's Tyrant any day of the week! The hand fix and the paint make a previously "okay" figure a real standout on my shelf, for sure.
